Most agents are ethical. They all make mistakes. Columbia SC Real Estate is not a unique market in that aspect as some are unintentional mistakes and some are not. Your response should depend on the intentions of the agent and the severity of the act committed. Your recourse against agents can be through their local Broker, their state Real Estate Commission, and in a court of law. You must understand that you have certain rights and to allow agents to deliberately engage in these behaviors gives them permission to do that same act to others. My conviction is to allow no mercy for the acts that are deliberate. These agents need to be punished or ostracized from the industry.
Let’s give an example that I heard today from a client of what happened to their family. My client had a home in a ski resort that they would use part of the year. They had an agent property manager that took care of the property and rented it out when they were not using it. One day unbeknown to the property manager they showed up in Colorado to stay in their condo. The property manager was supposed to tell them of all renters scheduled and send checks back to them. Much to their surprise, someone had been occupying their residence for some time without their being notified or paid. It turned out the agent was pocketing the money under the table. The situation got worse as the sellers decided to sell their unit. For some reason that I don’ t understand, they allowed the same agent to sell their unit. They should have smelled a rat when the agent insisted that there was no need to list it in the MLS as he had many prospects. Why do a pocket listing? This helps the listing agent more than the seller. The agent suggested a price they later found out that was significantly below market value. Why? Probably the reason was to get a quick sale. After several weeks the seller ran some ads in the local newspaper with the agents permission. Three offers came in. The first was a full price offer. The sellers were told by their less then trustworthy agent, that they must sell it because it was a full price offer. They would not be allowed to get a counter from either of the other two offers according to their agent.
Unfortunately, they elected to do nothing about these acts. Many of us want to avoid conflict and allow the transgressions to occur. We all have choices. Remember how we all pay the price for those turning their heads to injustices as evidence by the subprime sleaze that ripped us all off.
Broker Bob Mandel, Real Estate Advocates Network Your agent of Change
Our Principles Come Before Our Profits
